On 6/2/05, Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:
> There is a neat article here by our friend Peter Huber on how north
> american reforestation has occured, why, and how the greens try to hide
> the fact:
>http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_latimes-how_nongreen_cities.htm>
The big concern of 'the greens' nowadays is tropical rain forest deforestation.
See: Global Deforestation
<http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html>
Quote:
"Historical trends:
Until quite recently, most of the deforestation occurred in Europe,
North Africa, and the Middle East. By the beginning of this century,
these regions had been mostly converted from the original cover. Now,
deforestation in these regions has stabilized and regrowth is
occurring (though second growth forests have quite different
character, see below). In the last few decades, the vast majority of
deforestation has occurred in the tropics - and the pace still
accelerates. The removal of tropical forests in Latin America is
proceeding at a pace of about 2% per year. In Africa, the pace is
about 0.8% per year and in Asia it is 2% per year.
The USA has already experienced its wave of deforestation, with the
exception of small areas in the west and Alaska. Our old growth
forests were mostly harvested by 1920, particularly in the East.
Pacific Northwest forests and UP Michigan forests were heavily cut
after 1920 until quite recently, and harvest of old growth continues
today in Southeast Alaska. Interestingly, deforestation rates at
their peak in the Midwest were ~2% annually, about the rates now seen
in Amazonia. At that rate, how much of existing forest will remain in
70 years? Just one-fourth. However, much forest re-growth has
occurred in the eastern USA during the 20th Century, although these
second-growth forests differ in structure and composition from their
predecessors."
BillK